The invention relates to covers for steering wheels or the like.
Covers for steering wheels of motor vehicles normally consist of genuine or imitation leather, textile, a plastic material or a combination of the just enumerated and/or other materials. As a rule, the cover includes an annular body (because the steering wheel of a motor vehicle is normally a circumferentially complete ring) which is made of a strip of suitable flexible material and is placed around the steering wheel so that the two longitudinally extending marginal portions of the strip are adjacent each other within the confines of the steering wheel, i.e., in the region of the minimum-diameter portion of the steering wheel. Such marginal portions are then secured to each other. The making of the strip, its application to the steering wheel and the attachment of the marginal portions of the strip to each other (to thus convert the strip into a tube) are time-consuming operations, especially the attachment of marginal portions of the strip to one another. The situation is aggravated because at least the last-mentioned step must be carried out while the strip surrounds the steering wheel. The inner side of the steering wheel is not readily accessible to a workman, to a machine or to a tool.
Proposals to simplify the conversion of a strip into a tubular body which surrounds the steering wheel include the making of holes in the marginal portions of the strip and the utilization of a lace which is threaded through the holes not unlike a shoelace. The lace can constitute a yarn, a thread, a cord or the like. For example, the lace can be made of the same material as the strip. A drawback of this proposal is that the holes weaken the marginal portions of the strip and shorten the useful life of the cover. Moreover, the holes are not readily accessible because their inner ends are immediately adjacent the surface of the steering wheel. Therefore, the introduction of a lace into the holes is a tedious and time-consuming operation. It has been found that the appearance of a cover which employs a lace and holes in the marginal portions of the strip is not satisfactory. Still further, those portions of the lace which pass through the holes form bulges which detract from the appearance of the cover and are uncomfortable to the hands of the person grasping the cover. All in all, the aforedescribed covers failed to gain widespread acceptance by the drivers of automobiles and of other types of conveyances.